Inspire Engagement with Pinboard Plugin

Not only has the popularity of Pinterest taken the Internet by storm, but now, the layout of the pinboarding platform is influencing the design of many sites on the Web as well.

In fact, eBay recently latched onto the Pinterest-style arrangement of image tiles for its recent site redesign. And now a new plugin from real-time Web platform provider Echo allows digital marketers and developers to also take advantage of this increasingly popular layout.

The pinboard visualization plugin enables developers and digital marketers to display any type of real-time content in a pinboard style view. The plugin works with Echo StreamServer, which is a real-time activity database that captures and stores millions of updates per second. Then, the database serves this content up in real-time, and enables full customization and personalization of the items in each stream.

“Echo believes that the web is rapidly becoming real-time and social,” said Khris Loux, CEO of Echo. “Our products are designed to support this transition by giving developers and digital marketers the tools they need to employ a new method of social story telling.”

The types of information that can be displayed with the pinboard plugin range from social content such as tweets, YouTube videos, Facebook posts and Spotify tracks to traditional content like photos and store merchandise. Additionally, the plugin allows visitors to comment, like and reply to items from directly within each stream. Currently, the plugin is being leveraged as the primary content display mechanism for Interscope Geffen A&M’s new website.

“We have blended real-time social activity about our artists and brands with traditional content like partner and store merchandise,” said Lee Hammond, VP of Digital for Interscope Geffen A&M. “Every piece of content is displayed in the same real-time, visual format, driving deeper engagement with our fans.”